About Fencerow

I'm Mike Blythe. I built Fencerow, and I still run it myself.

I'm not a farmer. I've worked in IT for more than 20 years. I was born and raised in Arkansas, so I'm a country boy by default, and I drive past fields almost every day. Every trip to deer camp takes me past cotton fields, and I always have the same questions running through my head. What does it cost to grow all that? What's the fuel bill, the water bill? Who's the main buyer? Does it pencil out?

The math turned out to be simple. The hard part is that it usually lives in a spreadsheet someone rebuilds every winter, with last year's price plugged in because looking up a new one takes time, and then it's gone. I wanted a place that keeps it, year after year, and shows where every number came from. So I built one.

Where the numbers come from

Prices and yields come from the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service. If USDA doesn't have a number, Fencerow says so instead of guessing. The example costs come from published university crop budgets (Iowa State, Kansas State, and the University of Arkansas), and each one names its source.

How it's paid for

Fencerow is free for up to 3 fields, with no time limit. If you farm more than that, Pro is $49 a year. The subscriptions are the whole business: no investors, no ads, and no seed, chemical, or grain sales. Your numbers aren't sold or shared.

Talk to me

It's just me, so email reaches the person who wrote the code: mike@fencerow.farm. If a number looks wrong, or something doesn't fit how you farm, tell me. I'm not a farmer, so I learn the most from people who are.